UNIT 70 FILM EXTRACTS
Lesson 139 Kramer vs. Kramer (Ⅰ)
(In the Kramers' living room)
Joanna: Ted, I'm leaving you. Ted, keys. Here are my keys. Here's my American Express Card. Here's my Bloomingdale's Credit Card. Here's my check book. I've taken 2,000 dollars out of our savings account because that's what I had in the bank when we first got married.
Ted: What's this -- some kind of joke?
Joanna: Here's the cleaning. Here's the laundry ticket. You can pick them both up on Saturday. You, you have to pick them up on Saturday.
Ted: So you want to tell me what's the matter?
Joanna: I've paid the rent. I've paid the Con-Ed Bill and I've paid the phone bill. So ...
Ted: Well you really fixed your time so? Well, I am sorry that I was late, but I was busy making a living. All right? Come on. O.K.? Can we stop now?
Joanna: That's everything.
Ted: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ... Enough, enough, all right? What are you doing? Where are you going? Come on. Just tell me what I did. That's all. Just tell me what I did that's so terrible?
Joanna: It's not you. It's not you.
Ted: Then what is it?
Joanna: It's me. My fault. You just married the wrong person, that's all. ...
Ted: O.K. ... Let's just go inside, please.
Joanna: I can't. I've tired ...
Ted: Joanna, please. Now just ... I'm sorry.
Joanna: Now don't! Don't make me go in there please! Please, don't make me go in there! Don't make me go in there!
Ted: Let's just talk ...
Joanna: If you do, I swear one day, next week, maybe next year, I don't know, I'll go right out of the window.
Ted: Oh please, come on now ... What about Billy?
Joanna: I'm not taking him with me. I'm no good for him. I'm terrible with him. I have no patience. He's better off without me.
Ted: Joanna, please.
Joanna: And I don't love you anymore.
Ted: Where are you going?
Joanna: I don' know.
(In Billy's bedroom)
Ted: Hey, Billy! Billy! Told you Mommy'd write before the week's up.
Billy: When's she coming back?
Ted: Now, hold your horses. That's what we're going to find out right now. O.K. Read it. 'My dearest, sweet Billy.' You. 'Mommy has gone away. Sometimes in the world Daddies go away and Mommies bring up their little boys. But sometimes a Mommy can go away too. And, and you have your Daddy to bring you up. I have gone away because I must find something interesting to do for myself in the world. Everybody has to and so do I. Being a Mommy was one thing but there are other things too. And this is what I have to do. I did not get a chance to tell you this and that is why I'm writing you now. I will always be your Mommy and I will always love you. I just won't be your Mommy in the house. But I'll be your Mommy at the heart. And now ... (Billy turns on the TV. Noise comes over from the TV advertisement ...)
We're going to read this another time, O.K.?
Billy: Don't care.
(Telephone rings)
Ted: Louise, you want to get that? Louise, it's ringing, honey. (To the phone) Yeah, hello. Yes, Who is it? Joanna?!
(In a coffee shop)
Ted: Hi!
Joanna: Hi!
Ted: How are you?
Joanna: You look great. How's your ...
Ted: What?
Joanna: Er ...
Ted: I'm sorry.
Joanna: Oh, I was just going to say how's your job?
Ted: Fine, fine. Vice-president of nothing . ...
Waitress: Excuse me, would you like a drink?
Ted: (To the waitress) Whatever she's having.
Joanna: White wine.
Ted: Wine.
Joanna: How's Billy?
Ted: He's terrific. Oh, he ... er ... had an accident, couple of weeks ago on the playground and cut himself. It was really scary. I ran him all the way to the hospital. He's got a little teeny scar but he'll be fine. I, I've been worrying that's my fault.
Joanna: No, don't do that! Can't even see it from a distance. I ... Sometimes I sit in that coffee shop across the street from his school and watch him. He's got so big.
Ted: You've been watching him from the coffee shop?
Joanna: Well, I've been in New York for about two monthe now, so ...
Ted: I didn't know.
Joanna: Anyway. So I wanted to talk to you today, because er... last time you saw me, I was in a pretty bad ... really bad ...
Ted: Shape.
Joanna: Shape, yes. I was.
Ted: Well, you look, you look lovely now.
Joanna: Ah.
Ted: What?
Joanna: I have a whole speech.
Ted: Now, go ahead.
Joanna: Er ..., I know all my life I've, I've left like somebody's wife, or somebody's mother, or somebody's daughter. Even all the time we were together, I never knew who I was. And that's why I had to go away. And in California, I think I found myself. And I got myself a job, I got myself a therapist, a really good one. And, and I feel better about myself than I ever have in my whole life. And I've learned a great deal about myself?
Ted: Such as? No, I'm really ... I'd, I'd really like to know what you've learned?
Joanna: Well, I've learned that I love ... my little boy, and that I'm capable of taking care of him.
Ted: What do you mean?
Joanna: I want my son.
Ted: You can't have him.
Joanna: Don't get defensive. Don't ... don't try to bully me.
Ted: I'm not getting defensive. Who walked out of the house 15 months ago?
Joanna: I can't care.
Ted: Joan...
Joanna: I am still his mother.
Ted: Yes, and 3,000 miles away and just because you've sent him a few postcards. It gives you the right to come back here?
Joanna: I never stop wanting him, and loving him.
Ted: What makes you so sure he wants you?
Joanna: What makes you so sure he doesn't want me?
Ted: O.K. We're going to sit here and bat his back and forth like it was for eight years. That seems just like old times ...
Joanna: Well, you can't deny me. I am still his mommy.
Ted: Don't tell me what I can or cannot do. Don't talk to me that way.
Joanna: I anticipated that something ...
Ted: O.K. I don't want to ... You are going to have to do what you are going to have to do, I'm going to have to do what I...
Joanna: I'm very sorry about this.
Ted: O.K. You can just do what you have to do.